Category Archive

We may resent the intrusion of smartphones in our daily lives, but researchers at King’s College London are finding they can be a unique aid to help people with depression. Smartphones can track sufferers’ symptoms and the impact they have on their lives, and … Read More

The lymphatic system isn’t an easy concept to grasp, not even for a medical student. Suffice to say it’s a network of vessels that branch throughout the body, and play an important role in the draining of excess fluid from … Read More

Living in a city or living in the country have their own different appeals and advantages, such as access to shops and public transport, versus access to nature. It seems country folk in England have a surprising advantage over their townie … Read More

Some people are lucky. They have an anti-ageing gene that can wind the heart’s age back about 10 years. Yes, startling. This magical gene was ­discovered in centenarians, people who live 100 years or longer, by Bristol University researchers. Carriers … Read More

Chickenpox is often seen as a rite of passage – but should children really have to go through it? Well, almost three-quarters of parents would support a chickenpox vaccine being added to the childhood vaccination schedule. Researchers Professor Helen Bedford of UCL Great … Read More

Something as simple as earwax can cause anyone problems, but particularly, it seems, for people in care homes where nearly half of residents with dementia have issues with it. This situation can only get worse as earwax removal by GPs has now been stopped. … Read More

We can now peer inside cells and genes in a way that sounds like pure science fiction. ­Honestly, I feel some of our best medical research is getting near to the centre of life itself. One project is looking at … Read More

We’re going to be seeing more AI tools in medicine as it is introduced into further areas of medical practice. There’ll be none more important than that devised by Sheffield University scientists to speed up the diagnosis of heart disease. Astonishingly, they’ve got … Read More

Some exciting research has brought together two ­subjects we’re ­perennially focusing on – Alzheimer’s and vitamin D. There’s a lot of research surrounding the latter and it’s touted almost as a panacea, from promoting the absorption of calcium from the … Read More

Women’s gynae complaints have traditionally been downgraded by our ­predominantly male ­medical profession. I’ve written about my frustration over this before. A prime example is ­endometriosis. The average delay in both the UK and Australia from symptoms starting to a diagnosis is eight years. … Read More